anyone else think the free kit for SSD5 kinda sucks?

04-11-19, 11:59 AM

finally got VST working on my TD6v. pretty disappointed with SSD5 free trial, sounds worse than my stock sounds on my module. not particularly inspiring to want to buy the full version. is it any better?

I donít think it sucks and is still better than most Roland modules if you ask me and certainly better to play. However itís by no means a natural sounding kit and in my opinion it is no where near as good as SD3 or sd2

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AD2 has way nicer acoustic sounding kits (for me). SSD5 Kits often Sound Kind of odd when you try them out: and then you Play them to Music and they sit perfectly in the mix. They are not made for you to Play drums alone, but to produce Music.

His "Black Album" Kit sounds 1:1 like the Original, his ACDC and various Zeppelin Kits just fit perfectly to the respective Music and there are a LOT of great Kits available.

SSD this month offers a big sale, AD2 with 3 Adpaks often is on sale for 100 Bucks. Please only buy These on Sale, iif possible, they drop significantly 2-3 times a year.

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I've only played with the free version of SSD5, but it definitely seems to be mostly geared toward music production, with e-drum playing as an afterthought. The MIDI mapping interface is terrible, and the presets are lacking.

I think the sounds themselves are ok, but the default mic setup again seems mostly designed for production. Cymbals are way too quiet compared to snare/kick. Boosting the individual cymbal mics and the overhead mic helps a lot.

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They said they are doing an update soon with the mapping in the instrument editor. I have the full version and it works great. Not sure how the free version could sound worse than a TD6. The cymbals are in the overheads just like an acoustic kit mic'd. The default new kits have no processing. I am always surprised that drummers think kits well recorded in a good room are "produced" sounding. They sound very natural to me,just like a good studio.

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syyhlxx - as far as I know, the non-free version has the same interface, and thus the same issues.

Peter - when I mentioned music production, I didn't mean to say that the sounds themselves sound processed, but rather that the software seems designed for music production. In particular, the default mic balance seems set up for what you would want on a recording, rather than what I want to hear when I am playing an electronic kit.

At least they do have close mics on the hats and ride. Addictive Drums only has overheads for all of the cymbals, which makes it really hard to get hat and ride sounds that I find satisfying to play.

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After playing with ssd5 a while I do like it and yes it does sit in mixes really well. I think I will get the full version as itís fairly inexpensive and will come in useful. For playing and enjoying the feel and sound of a real kit I would choose SD3 every time but for getting recordings sounding good ssd5 is great and has its place. By the way once you know how the mapping works itís fairly simple. I notice a lot of complaints about presets for SD3 and ssd5. The answer is get into the software and create your own. Neither of them are that hard.

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Bfd has got a lot of good expansion packs too.. just like Superior ezx/ sdx .. you've got to watch though.. that you don't keep on buying
it's a given that you will only like 1/2 of the sounds.. so, when you've got about 4 or 5 good drumkits.. 'remember' to stop buying ..

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I really think it comes down to personal tastes... I personally think the drum samples in SSD5 are great, but cymbals lack some fullness for me. AD and BFD are also solid in terms of drum shell tones and some of their cymbals sound fantastic. I also have EZD2, but have had to pick up a few expansion packs to get great results out of it.

I have yet to buy and dive into SD3, but have heard nothing but great things about it so itís next on my list of VSTs to delve into. A quick question for anyone out there using SD3 - do you know if you can import multi-layer samples? Also, can you layer samples per trigger?

In the interim, for me the GetGood libraries are a winner, but theyíre not as expansive as Iíd like them to be and I personally canít stand Kontakt and the quirks with mapping it with my kit.

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I can answer the questions about SD3. So itís a bit messy to use with your own samples to create multi layers as you have to create a stack and then set velocity ranges for each one. Saying that it is possible. Yes you can layer internal samples with each other or with external samples on the same trigger note.

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It's depend what you are doing, for recording, Bfd3 default room suck sound bad on a mix, most AD room sound harss. If you are using vst for only playing drum without recording and production, these can sound good, but on recording and mix it's another story, the fact is SSD are used on many popular record from many top 40 band for reason, it works and cut troughs. Too much raw sound\ dead you will need to process them a lot and works more then it should. On ssd you need plugin's to have eq and compressor etc, there is no FX, not using cheap built in EQ\Compressor on the vst. Slate plugins are ranked top on the market simulate 95% close of original high quality hardware rack fx which cost tons of $$, these plugins are used with pro production. Using deluxe 1 and 2 are raw require processing. There is few expansion pack for SSD.

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messing around with ezdrummer 2 now, have some issues to figure out (ex: clipping at higher tempo if i move around the kit too much) but i like this one. sounds are great and interface is soooo much better than the mess that is SSD5.